Green
by Skiewrites
Summary: So everybody knew about his heritage now, which was a good thing, if the circumstances were better. Due to the... Unfortunate way that it was reviled that Lance was Altean, nobody seemed to trust him. That was fine, until a blue ghost like figure started haunted the castle, and Lance seemed to be the only one to see him. / Pt 4 to 'All the Colours of the Wind' series, Altean!Lance
1. Episode 11

_"I guess I have a lot of explaining to do, don't I?"_

His own words ring in his mind as he sat at the table mixing his unappetizing goo while the others watched him, their eyes boring into his soul as he took another bite of the food and struggled to swallow it down. Coran had been insistent that Lance eat before he explained anything, saying something along the lines of 'you'll get the cryo shivers if you don't eat now and you'll never get rid of them if you don't eat now, so hop along!' before leaving Lance alone with the rest of the crew; Allura sitting at the other end of the table in hopeful contemplation, Pidge sitting next to him on a chair and Keith on the table, leaving Hunk and Shiro to stand and watch him take another bit of the food.

Lance wondered if he could choke and die on the food, and he wondered more if the rest of the team would let him die.

He just stabbed his goo instead, frowning at the way that the spork stayed where it was in the food. It was more likely that there was another alien on the team than he dying because of the goo, unfortunately.

"Right, I will start off with a disclaimer: no Allura, I do not know where any Alteans are, if anything, I would advise younotto look for them."

"And why not!" Allura was up on her feet, hand slamming onto the table, making the humans jump back in surprise of her volume.

"You mean, other than the fact that they will probably kill you on sight, they won't believe that you're actually the lost Princess of Allura, and even if they did, I doubt that they would accept you as their Princess in the way that you would want them to," Lance explained simply, knowing that there really was no 'simply' with the situation at all, as his words had left Allura gawping in the most unprincess manor that, if not for the situation that Lance had found himself in, he would have said something about it. The others were silent as Allura frowned heavily at Lance.

"But why would I lie about who I am?" The question was innocent and yet it demanded an answer out of Lance, an answer that made sense but yet did not crush the Princess's new found hope that her people were out there, and they had been waiting for 10,000 decapheobs for her to come back to lead the rebellion against the Galran Empire for once and for all.

Lance hated the fact that he was about to disappoint her.

"It's a war Allura, and in a war, people cheat and lie and backstab and do whatever they can to make sure that they're the ones coming out victorious in the fight. I know it's against our nature to lie, and it can become painful to do so," the other paladins stare at him in confusion at this line, and Lance could hear the thoughts that were racing through their minds;'But you lied to us', and all Lance could think about was the day that his family believe the sweet lies of untruths coming out of his mouth for the first time, and remember the stab the soul it took to let the words leave his mouth as smoothly as they did, and how the pain of lying never changed for each lie, no matter how big or small the lie ever was. Allura nodded in agreement to Lance's statement, and Lance was sure that Coran would feel the same had the elder Altean been in the room with him.

"But, as much as lying is against our nature, so is our nature to surrender. And anyway," Lance added on, mixing his food before taking another bite when his stomach gave a large rumble, "It's not like I actually lied to any human about my species; it's not like they asked what my species was in the entrance interview at the Garrison." Allura looked confused, no doubt wondering what a 'Garrison' even was, but Hunk then spoke up, looking from person to person before starting to speak.

"So, how did you end up Earth anyway?" Lance looked up in surprise, before looking at each of the people in front of him. It was clear that this was one of the biggest burning questions that were in everyone's mind. Lance took in a deep breath, and wondered how to explain, how to start.

"Well, my grandparents found the Blue Lion of course!" Lance said with a smile, and Allura's eyes widen at the mention of one of the Voltron Lions, while the rest of the group seemed to somehow lean forward towards Lance without moving too much.

"You knew about the Lions? What else did you know about?!" Pidge almost shouted, her eyes wide with wonder and curiosity.

"Uh, I don't know, it depends really. I was more interested in learning to manipulate quintessence rather than learning about the past as must as one of my sister's, Catharyne, but I know some things. I know Galran and Altean, and I know the basics of how the empire is run and-"

"And where did you learn that?" Shiro asked, his voice stern and holding no room for arguments.

There was no point in lying about it.

"My grandfather, from when he worked in the empire, before he turned traitor and deserted his post with his wife and another couple he was close with," Lance answered easily, but the silence after his answer did not last long, the room quickly erupting into questions and demands.

"What do you mean 'worked in the empire'?" Allura's demanding question was the loudest, what with her hands slamming onto the table and making a thundering noise that echoed around the room, the others going quiet at the sudden anger that Allura displayed, behaviour that princess, no matter their race, should not be displaying.

"I mean what I said, he worked for the empire. He was known as a druid, it's similar to what an alchemist I guess," he added on at Allura's confusion, not able to look Shiro despite the glaring that the Black Paladin sent back at him, this gesture seemingly being noticed by everyone in the room.

"And there are more of these so called 'druids'? Are they all Alteans?" She asked, her face clearly showing her racing thoughts and Lance's face darken; he didn't need to read her mind to know what she was thinking.

"It won't work." He said gravely. She scowled at him.

"You know not of what you say."

"And you know not of what you plan. To attempt to win their favour is to beg upon deaf ears and to die doing so."

"I am Princess Allura of Altea, Mediator of People-" Her words were shouted loudly, her words were practiced, years of saying them to mirrors and family as jokes, politicians as introductions, have lead her to say them to Paladins as threats.

Lance was used to dealing with Paulyne. This was nothing.

"Altea is dead. Your titles are dead. You are dead to them, as you seem to be nothing without the words you use to show your once power over people. They will only follow Haggar, and she will forever strike more fear into them than you ever would to the empire," Lance ended the argument with simple words, words that made tears being up in her eyes and words that made her stand and throw back her chair and walk towards the door.

Words that may have hurt her, but words that she simply needed to hear if she wanted the revenged that she so craved.

And so Allura was gone, with Shiro only a couple of steps behind her, with only a glance thrown back at his team before his eyes landed on Lance and they harden with memory and the promise of a clear explanation of whatever happened to the pair of them when they were with Sendak, before the door closed behind them. Lance took in a deep breath, before stretching his arms high above his head and screwing his face tightly.

"I would answer more questions, really I would, but healing pods are tiring on the best of days, so I'm going to lay down for a bit, someone wake me up when we land or whatever," Lance said, and watched as the rest only mutely nodded and then left of the room, leaning against the wall as soon as the door slid closed, taking a deep breath in and slowly letting the breath out.

Deep breath in.

Feel the emotion.

Slowly let it out.

Acknowledge the emotion

Deep breath in.

_"Grab that emotion, andlet itout in a single breath. Another deep breath Lance, there we go. When you're doing this, you can't let your own Green Quintessence take over you."_

_"But Abuelo, I was better at it when I was filled with Green Qu-"_

_"Green Quintessence is a weakness! You've seen what the weakness of emotion has done to your sister-"_

_"You said that we have to forget the teaching of the Galra!"_

_"We cannot afford to do that Lance, you can't afford to do that, not with who you are. Now, deep breath in-"_

"Are you okay there Number Three?" Lance gave out a high pitched scream as Coran's voice interrupted his improved meditation, before sliding to the floor in the sudden depletion of adrenaline in his system.

"Yeah, I was just on my way back to my room, but I just had to take a breather I guess" Lance explained, hoping that Coran didn't judge him too much for jumping and sliding to the floor in surprise, but instead smiled down at Lance, making him very much aware of his markings, a similar blue to Coran but such a different shape, where his markings cut across his cheeks in a way that could never exist without the corruption of quintessence.

"That's pretty understandable, I heard you had a stressful time with Sendak, and I've seen Honerva break under less stress," Coran replied, before sitting down on the floor in front of Lance and crossing his legs, smoothing his clothing over his leg to maintain the perfect image of being the king's, or princess's in his case, hand.

"You knew Honvera?" Lance asked, his voice filled with shock. Catharyne lived for the woman, and had wanted to get her hands on information about her ever since she read her name in one of the older books that their aunt owned. Lance didn't remember a lot about her, more obsessed at the time about actually learning how to control quintessence than learning about the woman who discovered the fact that Alteans could even control quintessence outside of their appearance and the 'magic' that always seemed to happen at places like the Balmera and the mysterious Oriande that also regularly came up in the textbooks, the ancient place where the alchemists of old would learn the ancient ways of transferring quintessence form one thing to another. It was really basic stuff nowadays, but it's what quintessence manipulation was built on, and it was very powerful in its own way if done correctly.

"Yes, well, maybe not as well as maybe Allura or Alfor, but she was part of similar social circles due to her marriage to Zarkon after all, she even had a lab here," Lance eyes widened in excitement at the news.

"Really!? Would I be able to look through some of the stuff? They said that so much of her work was lost with the loss of Altea and Daibazaal after her death since everyone was more involved in the war rather than preserving what she found out."

"Yes, well, I suppose it doesn't help that the Lions went into hiding not too long after her death. She was one of the scientists that helped to make them after all, lead by King Alfor himself," Coran almost boasted, his fingers twisting his mustache, but his eyes only spoke of pain and loss, and it seemed that talking about an event that only took place a month ago in the man's eyes were clearly taking a toll on him. There was silence before Coran spoke up again.

"Would you be able to tell me what happened in the last 10'000 decapheobs that I've missed?" There was a seriousness in Coran's voice that made Lance's breath hitch. It was not often that Coran had spoken with the serious tone, not to the Paladins, and not often to Allura.

"I can try."


	2. Episode 12

_"With the death of Zarkon and Honvera, many Alteans left Altea to attend the funeral. When Zarkon rose again and said that the loss of Daibazaal was to be placed firmly on Alfor's shoulders, the Galran population, hungry for blood after a humungous and painful loss, were not the only people to turn against the Alteans for their actions. Alteans who heard from Zarkons side of the story, the ones who learned from Honerva or has similar teachings and were studying similar things to her were outraged that Alfor could ever do such a thing and commit such action against what was their own. They were only too happy to help Zarkon with his quest to take down Alfor and take the Lions for their own, but more in a research sort of way rather than a committing self genocide sort of way. So, when Altea was wiped off of the map, there were Alteans already off planet, and not just the ones who had fled in fear but the ones who stood and watched, and these ones swore themselves to Zarkon, Haggar, and their research."_

_"But not all of them, I take it?"_

_"I've been told that every Altean that served was happy and content with what they had, while those who did not serve fled with their lives. But, as the years passed and the Galran Empire only grew, some started to doubt, and some started to run, especially after hearing of those who managed to flee from Altea moments before it's destruction. After a while, there was a rumour going around that there was a safe haven for traitorous druids and peaceful evacuees, the name 'druid' coming about when it was decided that no one was to know the race of Zarkon's magic users for their own safety against Galrans who wanted more Altean Blood on their hands, a safe haven that not even Haggar herself could get to. Some did not want to risk it, but some found themselves desperate enough to take the chance. As time went on, the people who tried to run increased, but so did the number of those who got caught."_

_"What happened to those who got caught?"_

_"I was never told, but I've been told that they would have been sent to my Grandfather. HE refused outright to tell me or my siblings what he would have to do when he was sent someone who tried to desert the Empire."_

_-=-_

"Leave me be, Black Paladin," Allura huffed as she walked into the control room with her human shadow, the podiums rising and the screens lighting up to her presence like they have done every other time in the past and how they will continue to do so as long as the castle will stand. It was still strange for the machinery to do so, however, without people around them to man the extra computers. Coran was still trying to come up with a way to properly code the Paladins to be able to interact with all of the computers that the castle had available outside of the Lions, and had gained the Green Paladin's interest and help with it.

It would seem that the Blue Paladin would be able to use the technology without having to wait for his DNA to be logged into the system, and for some reason, that line of thought did not sit right with her, nor did his words, spoken with a confidence that she had almost missed from her mother.

_"Altea is dead. Your titles are dead. You are dead to them, as you seem to be nothing without the words you use to show your once power over people. They will only follow Haggar, and she will forever strike more fear into them than you ever would to the empire."_

She hated how much the words said had affected her, hated how her emotions and thoughts seemed to rise up quickly and almost spew out of her mouth, about how wrong he was and how the Alteans would follow that of who was right to rule, but she was for once glad that the words had gotten stuck in her throat. Her father had often said to her that her emotions were something similar to a two-sided knife, where she was very good at using it to get people what she wanted, but she was just as quick to stab herself with it at the same time.

It was times like these that she wished that she had her father with her, her real living breathing father rather the program that was made to intimidate a man that could never be expressed in two simple characters inside a machine.

"You're not in the right state of mind to be left alone right now," Allura twisted herself away from the screens to face the Black Paladin, feeling her face fill with blood at the fact that she had forgotten about her little shadow, though his words did ring true if she had been able to forget about his presence, despite not wanting it to be true.

"My state of mind is nothing for you to be concerned about," Allura replied, looking back at the screen and following the vector along the map, making sure that everything was going smoothly as possible before they got to the Balmera. It would still take a good while to get there, the new crystal was not fully set up yet (one of the many downsides to only having two people who knew how to run a ship, and none of them properly informed with small details like how to replace a crystal when it had been blown up and replaced with the horror that was the crystal that the Galrans replaced it with), meaning that they would not be able to open a wormhole at the chance of leaving them completely defenseless when they came into enemy territory.

"In fact, you should worry more about the state of your team, how on earth are you planning to form Voltron with a liar in your mist, a traitor to boot. We should consider taking him off of Voltron altogether really," Allura stated, but it seemed that the human did not like this information at all.

"Lance is no traitor, a liar, maybe-"

"We have- had a saying back on Altea: 'He who tells no truths is he who feels no pain.' I'm not expecting you humans to understand it, but it physically hurts Alteans to lie, the grander the lie, the more intense the pain. For him to lie like that, well, there's no thinking of what he could do or what he would become."

"He was raised to hide among human, and I don't know if you've gathered yet, but us humans lie, we lie and cheat and misdirect, to an extent that it's thought that we lie at least once during a 10 minute conversation," Allura felt her stomach drop at this new fact. Did they lie that often? Most worrying indeed. Was anything they had said to her the truth or was every word uttered a lie?

"You said that the Blue Lion's pilot was someone who was adaptable, and you don't get more adaptable as going against biology to fit in with a different species so they don't find out and kill you for who you are," Shiro argued, but Allura shook her head again.

"He must have confounded the Lion, I mean, look at what he did to the Galran, and that was just with a two minute period under stress. Imagine what he could have done to the Blue Lion with all the phoebs to convince her to pick him as the pilot. How long until he decides that we're next? In fact, it was you who told us to be wary of him once he was released from the pod!" She accused. The human took in a deep sigh, before slowly letting it out.

"My wariness towards Lance comes more from my background with druids rather than my lack of knowledge like yours does," He touch his arm at this point, but Allura cared not for it and instead frowned at the way he worded it. How dare he assume she was ignorant! But before she could interrogate him on the backhand, he continued.

"The things that he- that any of them can do is still unclear. Sure, he never mentioned his background, one that lands his ancestors supporting and helping the Empire expand, but he distracted Sendak, he was able to fly Blue and form Voltron with us, and that is not something you can throw away lightly," Shiro explained, but Allura rolled her eyes at his optimism.

"Voltron was betrayed once, by a Paladin himself. My body will be one with the 'Verse again before I let something akin to that happen again," She swore, going back the screen and editing the course slightly, making sure that a sector was completely avoided. Moments later, she heard the door slid close, leaving her to ponder her thoughts alone.

She only hoped that the Black Paladin would listen to her words. She will not let the past repeat itself.

-=-

_"All of my grandparents used to work for the Galran Empire, in some way or another. I was never told anything specific, I was too young to know and when I was old enough I had already left to go to the Garrison- It's the human version of space school I guess. Anyway, I was never really told, but looking back on what my grandfather talked about, he was more on the torture part of the job while I'm sure that my Abuela was on the research. I don't know how it happened, but they escaped the empire, probably looking for that Altean safe haven that everyone keeps hearing about. They never found it, but they found the Blade of Marmora instead."_

_"The Blade of Marmora? May I ask what that is?"_

_"The Blade of Marmora is a Galran rebel group. It's the one that's lasted the longest so far, mainly because of the way that they hide in the shadows and secretly sabotage the Empire's efforts rather than fight them outright like we will be doing."_

_"I take it that Allura knows not of this information, nor the rest of the group."_

_"Well, if they have, they haven't heard it from me."_

_-=-_

"So, what do we do? Our best friend is an alien and we were never told about it!" Keith stared at Hunk, knowing that his blank face was probably confusing the Yellow Paladin, but this time his lack of facial expressions, a trait he knew freaked a lot of people out, worked in his favour, because what were they supposed to do exactly?

"What is there to say? It's not like we actually asked what his species was, we didn't even ask what his ethnicity was, so it's not like he actually lied to us. Its also not surprising that he didn't tell us at the Garrison, after all, there was no reason to trust us then," Pidge thought aloud, making Keith sigh silently and roll his eyes. Hunk frowned before sitting at the table across from Pidge, and Keith turned around to fully sit crossed legged on the table to face the rest of the group. Shiro was always talking about bonding with the rest of the group, so this seemed like something that could make a good start, even if the circumstances weren't the best that it could have been.

"He could have told us when we got to space though. He could have told us in the Lion, could have told us when we found the castle, or the princess, really, there were a lot of opportunities for him to go 'Hey guys! I'm an alien with the ability to do magic!'" Hunk moaned, causing Keith to roll his eyes that the dramatic reenactment Hunk was putting on of Lance saying he was Altean.unk

"For some reason, I get the impression that Lance would not be impressed with you saying magic," Keith muttered, calling the other two's attention on to him. Pidge frowned at his words.

"How did you know about the Blue Lion anyway? I would understand if it was the Red Lion, after all, it'syourLion, but the Blue Lion is Lance's Lion, and he said that he knew about her long before Kerberos it seems." Keith pondered on Pidge's words for a moment, before shrugging.

"I… Still don't know. She's been calling me before I can remember, I've always had the Blue Lion in the back of my mine, calling to go and see her. It's a lot different in the way that Red speaks, because while my Lion can press ideas into my head, something that I know the rst of you can do with your Lions, Blue was just… Calling. Maybe she was calling to Lance and since I was the closest Paladin I could hear her too?" Keith rambled, knowing that his excuse that the end to explain what happened was not the right answer, something about it felt off. Since finding the Blue Lion, he could still feel her slightly. Not as powerful as Red, but there was some sort of bond between Keith and the Blue Lion, and it confused him to no end.

"That's strange, but I'm not sure if that's cor-" Pidge started, but Hunk interrupted her.

"Is Lance going to be kicked off of the team? Allura didn't seem to like the idea of him saying those things to her, and she hates the Galra and anyone who works with them," Pidge frowned at Hunk words, as rushed as they were.

"I mean, does she even have that power? I know the castle is hers but the Lions-"

"But she has that bond thing with the Lions! Maybe they have to listen to her-"

"Lance isn't being kicked off the team," Keith stated, talking loudly over the bickering, jumping off of the table and walking towards the door. There was no point staying here. He could get some training in.

"And what makes you say that?" Pidge asked, seemingly confused over Keith sudden confidence.

"Because I am not going to be on a team without Lance. Allura might think she can replace one Paladin, but she would be stumped to find two."

-=-

_"So what happened after your Grandparents joined the Blade of Marmora?"_

_"Abuela continued her research, and I believed that everyone else began to help her, since more people means that more things could be accomplished, though I'm not too sure what exactly her research was other than the fact that she had a breakthrough just after I joined the Garrison, and was working herself to the bone according to my sisters. Nonetheless, they found out how dangerous the quintessence that the Empire uses is, how it can damage someone's personal quintessence and how that is a huge reason as to why we have adapted the way we have; our quintessence is more merged than yours would be to make it less likely that we would be completely corrupted by the harvested quintessence, my sister cannot even control any quintessence due to her core being mixed with too many colours. My Abuela said I was probably the first in too many generations to have a core as pure as mine is."_

_"Ah, that does explain the symptoms that you experienced."_

_"Come again?"_

_"The Black Paladin told us that the Galran general injected you with some of this corrupt quintessence, and how it woke you up and were able to move about as if you had never been in an explosion merely an hour before."_

_"It was still painful to move about, but it was almost like it had been pushed to the side, but afterward it hurt more than it did before. It doesn't explain what you mean by 'symptoms' though…"_

_"Yes, well, you're not the first Altean to have been injected with quintessence, some of the research that Honvera's team did was see the effects of quintessence on the body, and they experimented on themselves, despite Alfor's commands to do no such thing. Ah, what they did for science; they found that the quintessence made them confident, they seemed to forget their boundaries and made many great discoveries through it, but for a price. They found that after it was gone they were quicker to tire, quicker to anger. It was actually Somile, one of the researchers, that linked the extremity of the drop, from how high to how low, with the purity of the person's core. I wouldn't be surprised if you felt low for the next couple of days."_

_"I guess that makes sense? Anyway, before too long, they found a weird signal. They get permission to follow said signal and boom! They find the Lion. They put some protections around the Lion – they called it old magic, and they made it so that only all five Paladins could open the chamber up and go to the Blue Lion. They lived on Terra, popped out a couple of generations, and here we are!"_

_"Here you are indeed Number Three."_

_-=-_

Shiro turned another corner, each step away from the princess filled him with slightly more reief than the last, and the conversation kept poking at his mind, bugging him in ways he knew that would never leave him until he got answers, answers that he really didn't want to be fining that this moment in time, not with what he had just learned, not with how Allura and Lance had been so passive aggressive with each other during their conversation, not while the rest of the team seemingly knew nothing about what was going on.

There was more that patience could bring other than focus.

He quickly walked past the open dining room, where the rest of the Paladins were talking loudly about Lance, meaning that Lance was clearly not in the room. No, bother. The boy probably went to lie down for a bit, not surprising since everything he just went through – Shiro knew that everything that the Galra did to him made him feel like closing his eyes forever when he was in the shed with Keith when he first arrived back on Earth, and that feeling hasn't left just because he was back in space and how leading a group of teenagers against a man who completely destroyed (but save din some disgusting way) his life.

But with Lance now sharing what he did, it seemed that it wasn't just his life he had affected.

As he was walking, he wondered what he was going to be saying to Lance when he next saw him. Not questions, no. He wasn't ready to hear any answers about the Empire as a whole, and anything else, anything about his family or how he grew up or even what he saw in Sendak's mind (he had seen enough sci-fi film with Matt to know what Lance was doing with his intense staring) seemed personal, something that Shiro felt that he wasn't entitled to know, even if he was supposed to be the leader of Voltron.

No, he was entitled to his secrets, just like everyone else in the group had their own secrets. Pidge had yet to tell anyone that she was a girl, Shiro refused to talk about what the Galra did to him except for the general things, Keith, well, Keith didn't share much to even Shiro, so who knows what he was hiding, and Hunk… Shiro got the impression that the Yellow Paladin had nothing to hide, nothing big or life-changing and something like that was almost like breathing fresh air when comparing to the rest of the group.

But Lance clearly had the biggest secrets, the secrets that were dangerous and could get people killed, innocent or otherwise. Not only that, but watching him work, watching him stare into the depths of the Galran mind and soul- it scared Shiro. It scared him because he remembered it, remembered the way that the boring eyes cared nor for his pain and dove in like a kid in a paddling pool, gleefully going backward and forwards and seeing how many things were hidden away in the mind. Not only that, but Shiro remembered how it felt to feel the emotion of the other while they played with him, remembered how it felt for them to pull out of his mind at the same speed that they entered, the invisible whiplash staying with him for days.

Shiro wasn't ready for answers, not the answers that he would be looking for, but he trusted Lance. Allura didn't understand, and her words about a Paladin betraying Voltron made no sense because there was no describable feeling that Shiro could find to explain the bond between each of the Paladins, let alone the Paladin and their Lion. Despite Lance's past, Lance's species, Lance's experiences or abilities, he was the Paladin of the Blue Lion.

And that was enough.

-=-

**A.N. Hey guys, I haven't given up with this I promise, though please do leave a comment for encouragement. Thank you for your patience. **


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